JAL Do It Again And Buck The Trend With Their 787

Just when we thought we were going to give up on hoping for a less cramped 787 economy cabin, JAL come along and show us that passengers should be treated to extra space, in every cabin. ANA did offer a 2 x 4 x 2 seating configuration in their 787s but that has been phased…

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FEATURE: Exclusive In-Depth Look At Etihad’s A380 Design Journey Part 4

Read Part 1 here  |  Read Part 2 here  |  Read Part 3 here Part 4 | Economy. “Amazing! It’s like being on the Orient Express” I instinctively say when seeing the designs for the Economy Smartseat of Etihad’s new fleet. My interviewees all smile at that comment. I guess that must be called ‘hitting…

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Priestmangoode Get Us Excited About E-Jets

Farnborough has already brought us our first bit of exciting design news – and we like what we see when it comes to Embraer’s E2! The new single aisle cabin designed by world-renowned design studio Priestmangoode for Embraer was unveiled today with a full size mock up at the world famous air show. The designs…

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SAS Introduce Brand New Long Haul Interiors

SAS, excitingly, have announced a brand new cabin concept for their long haul aircraft. Featuring business class, premium economy and economy classes, the new cabin and seat designs leap the airline into 2014 with a loud bang. Competing against carriers such as Finnair who have already pushed their airline forward with new designed cabins, SAS…

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A Closer Look At China Southern’s New 777 Interior

Back in late February China Southern took delivery of its first 777-300ER. In March 2014 it started flying to Shanghai from Guangzhou and now is commencing flights to NYC. The new aircraft features the latest cabin designs for the carrier which in our estimation has lifted the carrier to a world class competitor. With a…

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Lufthansa’s New Premium Economy

Lufthansa have been working on a new premium economy product for the past few years and have just announced they are to be introduced into their long haul fleet. Seen globally as a huge success since the invention from Virgin Atlantic, in 1992, many airlines now offer a class between economy and business class, as…

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Exclusive Look At Hawaiian’s New A330 Interiors

We were lucky today to be given an exclusive tour of one Hawaiian Airlines‘ two new A330 aircraft, parked at the gate at Honolulu airport. Just a few weeks old the latest aircraft to join the fleet, Keoe, showcases the brand new interior that will soon be introduced to the entire A330 fleet. Set to…

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Scoot Showcase New 787 Interior and Livery

Thanks to our friends at Australian Business Traveller, we can share the latest news from Asia LCC Scoot. Singapore Airlines’ low-cost offshoot will take delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 in November this year and shift to an all-Boeing 787 fleet by the middle of 2015 as the airline seeks to parlay the Dreamliner’s increased fuel…

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‘Ohana By Hawaiian Now Painted

  Our friends at Hawaiian have just released a video time-lapse of the painting of their very first ATR. Whilst we announced this a while ago, secretly we’ve been waiting for the chance to see this livery for real. The new aircraft are absolutely stunning and are yet another winning livery for the pacific –…

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Interview with Emirates Shows Dining Is Set To Impress

Over the years, our dining experiences in the air has been a little bit mixed, even as children we probably have memories of eating shapeless mush as much as we have memories of our best dining experiences. Our bets are the best dining memories are recent memories. That’s because technology and science really have helped…

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Japan’s Skymark Goes Premium Economy-Only On New A330s

Co-written by Raymond Kollau, airlinetrends.com Hybrid low-cost carrier Skymark – Japan’s third largest airline – turned heads in early 2011 when it announced an order for six A380 superjumbo’s which will feature only 394 seats in a premium two-class configuration: 114 angled lie-flat Business seatss on the upper deck and 280 ‘shell-style’ Premium Economy seats on the lower deck. Skymark…

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Fiji Airways Announce New Regional Brand ‘Fiji Link’

Our good friends at Fiji Airways, winner of the best livery 2013 in our Top 10 Liveries have now extended their brand to the domestic and regional carrier Pacific Sun. Pacific Sun, since the new re-branding of Fiji’s International airline, has been at odds with the earthy colours and sophisticated cabins, although obviously the friendly and…

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Air Canada Showcase New 787 Interior

Air Canada, who have created one of the densest seating 777‘s going, which apart from their new business class cabin (which is great), packed passengers in their economy cabin, has now released impressions of their 787. Whilst the economy cabin offers 3 x 3 x 3 seating (which although tight is similar to almost all…

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Air New Zealand Reveal 787-9 Interiors

We were very excited to receive a press release this morning from Air New Zealand, it showed in full glory the new 787-9 interiors, and their first routes. Initially flying on the Auckland – Perth route, as more aircraft join the fleet it will then start flying Auckland – Tokyo, Auckland – Shanghai, and also…

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Hawaiian Airlines Announce Extra Comfort Economy Seating

One of our favourite carriers, Hawaiian Airlines has recently announced that in June 2014, their A330 fleet will offer a new level of comfort in their economy cabin. Titled ‘Extra Comfort Economy’, Hawaiian, In their first comprehensive redesign of its long-haul seating configuration, will be offering a new class of seats that offer more legroom and other amenities…

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Transaero Launch Spectacular 737 Cabin

We are slightly taken aback by Transaero’s latest announcement regarding the cabin offerings on their six new 737-800 aircraft. Transaero, a Russian carrier, that was fairly unheard of until a few years ago, was recently awarded by SkyTrax “Most Improved Airline In the World” and by the looks of things, quite rightly so. In what…

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Our Guide to Combating The Shrinking Seat

The Wall Street Journal recently posted a brilliant article about the supposed ‘Shrinking’ Airline seat, where airlines have become savvy to squeezing in an extra seat per row to get extra revenue, whilst losing an inch per seat width in comfort. Interestingly the main airframes this applies to is the 777 (9 across comfortably, but…

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Japan Airlines’ New Sky Suite II 767 Details Revealed

Last May, Japan AIrlines announced the airline was renovating the airline’s 767 cabin for its international routes. The first route will be first introduced on flights between Tokyo (Narita) and Vancouver from December 09, 2013 and following this, flights between Tokyo (Narita) and Kuala Lumpur from January 2014.  The airline also plans to expand this new service…

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Edelweiss Bring New Cabin Long-Haul Luxury

Edelweiss last month announced the launch of its new cabin offerings that will be on it’s long haul A330 fleet as of end of May next year. Both the A330-300 and A330-200 will be refitted to offer a more state-of-the-art experience for it’s long haul operations, featuring a completely new business class cabin, economy cabin…

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Air France Make Subtle Differences To Try And Make A Big Difference

Air France has made a “Best&Beyond” promise to change it’s ways recently, shaking off some of the history it has steeped up over the years, and add a more contemporary ‘luxury’ feel to the airline. The French legacy carrier, like Lufthansa and British Airways, is fast becoming another bastion of European ‘luxury refined’ travel. Each…

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Marc Newson’s New Qantas A330 Seating

We are great fans of Marc Newson and what he is achieving at Qantas with regards to design. The lounges in Sydney are spectacular (and won our Top 10 Lounges last year) and his attempts at pulling the fleet into the 21st century have been very successful. (perhaps in part due to the competition arisen…

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Battle Of The Trans-Con With Delta Taking On JetBlue

Only a day after JetBlue announced their new premium trans-continental product launch including mini-suites, Delta have announced their new premium trans-continental US service onboard their 757 fleet. All in all, they have pulled out the big guns, and with American yet to reveal their new cabin product, the gloves, most certainly are off. Way to…

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Air Canada’s Facebook Fans Revolt

Oh dear. Sometimes a Facebook page isn’t such a good idea. Last week Air Canada showcased images of their new cabin on their Facebook page. As we reported back in February,  the new 777-300 they have brought to their fleet was been configured in what can only be described as a step above “sardine tin”.…

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Singapore Airlines Reinvent Pure Luxury

Singapore Airlines has been the epitome of luxury for many years now. Many airlines look to the airline, not only for the product they have onboard, but the way that Singapore Airlines effortlessly conveys luxury and sophistication. Singapore Airlines has not failed to deliver on their latest incarnation of products which will replace the current fleets…

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Fiji Airways Dazzle With New Uniforms

Our friends, Fiji Airways, have announced the latest stage of their rebranding excercise, bringing back the original glamour and authentic of their previous incarnation of the airline. The carrier on Thursday 27th June, relaunched itself worldwide as Fiji Airways, retiring its ‘Air Pacific’ brand. The defining moment, was the reveal of the new uniforms, created by…

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TheDesignAir Top 10 Economy Classes Of 2013

We are pleased to announce our Top 10 economy classes for 2013. We have scoured the world for airlines that have really shown us something truly special. Whilst many airlines didn’t make the list, we’d like to state that generally over the past 12 months, we have seen airlines around the world innovate and renovate…

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Taking A Look At Batik Air’s Brand New Look

Now that Batik Air, Lion Air’s latest ‘Premium’ venture, has been flying for a few weeks, we thought it best to take some time to take a look at this new carrier and what you can expect. Firstly, Let’s talk interiors. The whole premise of the airline is to fly passengers around the Asia region…

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Garuda Indonesia Impress With New First Class Offering

Garuda Indonesia has had a resurgence in the past few years, and as part of their ‘Quantum Leap’ program announced last year, Garuda have re-launched both their first class product (whilst other carriers continue to remove their products) and ‘executive’ business class. Now available to purchase on their new 777 fleet, the product is of…

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British Airways Showcase New A380

British Airways today announced that booking has commenced for flights to Hong Kong and Los Angeles onboard their new flagship, the Airbus A380. Los Angeles will be available to book for flights commencing October 15th, and Hong Kong will commence operations on November 15th, both this year. The routes were widely expected, and fit the…

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A Closer Look At JAL’s Sky Suite 777 Interior

As JAL announced today that they were launching the JAL 777 ‘Sky Suite’ interior on their New York route as of May this year, we thought we would take a look at the new product that has already been rolled out on the London route as of January 2013. JAL has always been a solid…

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